Thai Pumpkin Curry

I’m so excited about this recipe. My mom and I’s favorite restaurant is Cool Basil in West Des Moines. Its where we would go when she’d convince me to go shopping with her. Often it was the reason I went. They have a bunch of really great things but the pumpkin curry is probably my favorite though I don’t get it often because it isn’t really all that healthy.

But now I can make it at home – as healthy or hedonistic as I want. I posed a question on the Post Punk Kitchen about a recipe that was tried and true and was pointed towards this one.  I tweaked it a bit to my tastes and ingredients and the result was amazing. I have pictures, but no patience for iphoto tonight. Instead here is the recipe.

Thai Pumpkin Curry

1 medium winter squash (kabocha is great)

1 tbsp. oil

1 onion, sliced

1-2 garlic clove, minced

2 tbsp. Thai green curry paste

1 can coconut milk

1 c. water

2 1/2 tbsp. tamari

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. tamarind paste

1 red bell pepper, sliced

a handful of green beans, snapped

Peel and seed the squash and cut into cubes. In skillet, heat oil over medium and saute onion and curry paste until onions soften. Add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add squash, coconut milk, water, tamari, sugar, salt, and tamarind paste. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Add bell pepper and green beans and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Why you don’t mess with farm dogs.

I’ve been slacking lately, but I already mentioned that in my last post. So here is the eggplant curry I made a while back. Baigan bhartha I believe its called though my spelling is probably wrong. Anyway, it was delicious.

And on to what the title of this post alludes to. So today, my mom and I took my little munchkin, Scruffy, to the vet. We thought why not try to take my brother’s dog too. Max doesn’t have any of his shots and well, thats illegal as well as ill-advised. Max is a lovable, if not powerful and rambunctious, black lab-blue heller mix. He’s always been my buddy, but that didn’t matter today. Because I was trying to get him into the cab of the truck, the last place on Earth he wanted to be. Max has a fear of vehicles that results in injury quite often for the person trying to get him into it. 

 

Long story short, coaxing wasn’t working so I tried to fashion a muzzle. But that clearly didn’t work since as soon as I tried to pick him up he reeled back and clamped onto my arm. Thats how I ended up with this beauty.

The picture really doesn’t do it justice. The purple is much more vivid. The purple (which is my blood mind you) has now reached the edge of my tattoo so it looks rather interesting. This will make for some interesting stories tomorrow at work.

Staples

I’ve seen a lot of vegan mofo posts showing the contents of freezers. I whipped out my camera and opened the freezer only to realize there was no way I was going to show off its contents. First of all, I share the freezer with my mom. So my frozen tofu is right next to her bag of shrimp. Instead I bring you, the vegan cupboard.

My mom got sick of my stuff taking over so she gave me one cupboard all to my happy little self. The bottom shelf is mostly spices and staples like vinegars and canned food. The second shelf is grains/flours/ carbs of different varieties. And the top shelf is everything else that doesn’t get used too often, which the exception of the coffee and nooch. Now those spices on the bottom are just a sample. Here’s some more.

These are mostly my Indian spices and some random others. There is another drawer and shelf in the kitchen full of spices. I know, I need help. But I never have bland food! An example: buttercup squash-chickpea curry with seeds of cumin, coriander, mustard, kala jeera, fennel, ajwain, and some maharajah curry powder. And some shaved up asafoetida. Salt and pepper of course.

Getting into the college mode.

I hate how frustrated I get when I don’t have access to the internet. Like last night. I somehow ended up watching that reality dance celebrity show with my mom. But I watched Apocalypse Now first so I was in a different state of mind. 

 

Anyway, onto the food. I had to work yesterday, which means I was talking about food all day. Of course when I get home I’m almost too tired to cook. Almost. I made a curry. I need to decide on curry before I start making it. I wanted a Thai curry, but somehow forgot and started toasting the seeds (mustard, fennel, kala jeera, ajwain, etc). Oh wait, I wanted to add prik khing chile paste to that. Ok. So I ended up with an entirely unappetizing looking winter squash curry. I’m just calling it curry because it was Indian and Thai. But it was damn good so it doesn’t matter. 

 

But because I like pictures and thats why people look at blogs, here is a picture of the soft peanut butter chocolate chunk cookie testers I made the other day. I took them up to Ames to give to some friends and they are now happily digested in adoring vegan cookie fans.

And while in Ames I hung out with my friend Kelsey. After gorging ourselves at India Palace (they use oil not ghee, yes!) we hung out on campus and I sat in on her communications lecture. I forgot what college felt like. Plus I had to hit up Wheatsfield Co-op. I love their bulk nut butter. I picked up some tahini and I’m now in love with it. I’ll probably post some sesame cookies here in a bit if I can get ambitious and make them.